Friday of the 5th Week of Eastertide
Acts 15:22-31 | Psalm 56(57):8-12 | John 15:12-17
It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials (Acts 15:28)
Sometimes, we overthink our faith.
I think most of us have been bombarded with many “thou shalt” edicts in our lives, especially when it comes to our Catholic faith.
Thou shalt…go to church every Sunday, and other days of obligation.
Thou shalt…fast and abstain on important days.
Thou shalt…not cast thy parents aside in their old age.
“Rules, rules and more rules! I want FREEDOM!”
But why are we asking for what we already have?
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
Here’s a “dirty little secret”: We have free will.
Blew your mind, didn’t I?
We can choose…to walk away from the trappings and mumbo-jumbo of communal worship.
We can choose…to indulge in the finest foods every day.
We can choose…to dump our inconvenient parents in an old folks’ home.
But when we choose to honour God and each other, we don’t do so because we were told to, on pain of eternal damnation.
We do so out of LOVE, the love that forms the bedrock of our faith, the love that God Himself bequeathed us through Jesus Christ.
We go to church…because we’re moved deep in our hearts to join with our fellow believers in offering praises to God.
We fast and abstain…to remind ourselves of the love poured out for us by the Passionate Christ, and to set aside something for the less fortunate, in whom we see His face looking out forlornly.
We invite our parents to come stay with us in their old age…because we are driven in our love to care for them, just as they turned themselves inside out for us in our childhood days.
We need not be disturbed by our religion’s demands, for there are few, nor should we let our minds be unsettled by the thought that we fall short in someone else’s concept of Catholicism.
We just need to love God, and let that love propel us towards deeds of holiness for our brothers and sisters…and for ourselves.
If we are to be preoccupied with anything, let us be preoccupied with living to love others, and loving to live our life in Christ.
Amen.